Category Archives: Arts communities

Ishmael Reed, Grateful Dead: Egypt

November 28, 2012 Ishmael Reed gets away with it. He is “a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra,” he says in the poem of that title.  And he gets to do thisbecause Sonny Rollins has already set an example: Sonny … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Arts communities, collaboration, contemporary poetry, Egypt, Global South, jazz, Middle East, Music, peripheral networks, Rock music, Twentieth century literature, Vernacular dialects, World religions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: “Re Dis Appearing”

October 24, 2012 I’m getting ready for the World Humanities Forum, held next week in Busan, South Korea.   So I’ve been thinking about Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, born in 1951 in Busan. She immigrated with her family to the … Continue reading

Posted in Arts communities, Asian-American literature, Autobiography, Cities, Comparative literature, Contemporary Art, Diaspora, digital humanities, digital platforms, Ethnicity, film medium, Gender, Genre, Interdisciplinarity, Media, print medium, Publishers, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Universities, Visual arts, World religions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Jack Kerouac: Mexico City Blues

October 3, 2012 “The immense triangular arc from New York to Mexico City to San Francisco”: Jack Kerouac writes in The Dharma Bums. After two publishers turned down On the Road in quick succession, Kerouac went to Mexico in a … Continue reading

Posted in African-American music, Americas, Arts communities, Cities, Experimental poetry, Genre, Global South, jazz, Latin America, lyric, Media, mexico, Modernist poetry, Music, peripheral networks, Publishers, Spanish, Twentieth century literature, YouTube videos | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Street Scene: Langston Hughes, Kurt Weill, Elmer Rice

July 11, 2012 It started out as a play by Elmer Rice: a Broadway run of 601 shows, the Pulitzer Prize in 1929, the  movie in 1931. Kurt Weill saw it in Berlin, both the play and the film, and … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, African-American literature, Arts communities, Broadway plays, Cities, collaboration, Dance, Ethnicity, film medium, Interdisciplinarity, jazz, lyric, Media, Modernist poetry, Music, Remediation, Theater, Twentieth century literature, world literature, YouTube videos | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Literature to Film, Sydney 2012

May 30, 2012 May 28, 2012 was the centenary of the birth of Patrick White.  Many of us from the conference went down to a special screening of The Eye of the Storm, directed by Fred Schepisi, featuring Charlotte Rampling … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, architecture, Arts communities, Australia, Cities, collaboration, Comparative literature, Contemporary Art, Diaspora, Educational institutions, film festivals, film medium, Global South, Interdisciplinarity, Media, Modern art, museums, Music, Remediation, Rock music, Theater, Translation, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Jazz in Australia: Yusef Komunyakaa, Charlie Parker

May 22, 2012 I’m heading there later today, so I’ve been doing a bit of homework. Komunyakaa, of course: it’s so strange that I should be talking about his play adaptation of Gilgamesh at the University of Sydney, when there … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Arts communities, Australia, collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Educational institutions, epic, Ethnicity, Global South, Handwritten script, lyric, Media, Mesopotamia, Middle East, Music, Near Eastern poetry, peripheral networks, planet, print medium, Remediation, twentieth century art | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Space Brownies: Alice B. Toklas, Brion Gysin, William Burroughs

May 16, 2012 Gertrude Stein was dead at that point; she had died in 1947.  In 1952 Alice signed a contract with Harper’s to write a cookbook. Then in her 70s, Alice was not as quick with her pen as … Continue reading

Posted in Arts communities, collaboration, Experimental poetry, film medium, Food in literature, Handwritten script, Interdisciplinarity, Media, Modern art, print medium, Publishers, Radio, Remediation, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Gertrude Stein: Pittsburgh to Paris

May 9, 2012 850 Beech Avenue, Allegheny West.   A two-story house, 5 windows on its front facade, 3 on the second floor, 2 on the first.  A modest house, middle-class, no more. I remember this, of course, from The Autobiography … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Arts communities, Modern art, museums, Paris, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Black Pittsburgh

May 2, 2012 I’ve been here before, but it hit me again this time, coming into the city at night.  This has got to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.   The river and the bridges all lit up — there are … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, African-American literature, Arabic, Arts communities, collaboration, Contemporary Art, Educational institutions, Ethnicity, Islam, jazz, Media, Music, peripheral networks, Theater, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature, World religions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Black Mountain College

February 1, 2012 It’s a shame it was so short-lived. 1933-1957. Only 24 years. But maybe that’s the life-span one would expect from an entity like this: a mid-size player. That’s what Black Mountain College was. It didn’t have the … Continue reading

Posted in abstract expressionism, Arts communities, Contemporary Art, Dance, Educational institutions, Experimental poetry, Interdisciplinarity, Modernist poetry, Music, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment